Line-Up includes The New Colony, Prologue Theatre Company and Walkabout Theater, as well as Late-Night, Cross-Genre

CHICAGO, IL â€“ Performances of Steppenwolf Theatre Companyâ€™s fifth annual Garage Rep are scheduled to begin February 14, 2014, featuring The New Colonyâ€™s world-premiere production of reWILDing Genius, Prologue Theatre Companyâ€™s Chicago-premiere production of Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and Walkabout Theater Companyâ€™s world-premiere production of The Wild. These innovative storefront companies perform in rotating repertory for ten weeks through April 20, 2013 (press performances are March 8 and 9, 2014). Performances are scheduled Wednesday through Sunday in the Garage Theater (1624 N Halsted St); a full performance schedule, including the line-up for Late Night @ Garage Rep, follows. Garage Rep single tickets ($20) and three-play passes ($45), as well as Late Night single tickets ($5) are on sale now through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650 and steppenwolf.org.

“We wanted to create a show about Millennials, for Millennials, by Millennialsâ€”so reWILDing Genius is probably one of the most personal shows we have ever created. The opportunity to work with Steppenwolf to develop it even further into the kind of no-holds-barred experience they are known for is absolutely incredible,” notes New Colony Co-Artistic Director Andrew Hobgood.

An Uptown Chicago loft becomes a breeding ground for young minds looking to change the world.Â Self-identified geniuses, cybervigilantes, hacktivists and anarchists cast off the laws of the land as they attempt to alter Humanityâ€™s fate. As these Millennials plot against enemies and build complex data schemes, reWILDing Genius asks how far is too far in our quest to save us from ourselves.

The New Colony (Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder, Co-Artistic Directors; Sarah Gitenstein, Associate Artistic Director; Stephanie Shum, Managing Director), the 2011 recipient of the Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theater Award, strives to contribute original material to the American artistic canon and develop a new kind of theater going audience. Through collaboration with emerging artists of all disciplines, The New Colony continually develops new work and fresh perspectives. With the goal of exploring enticing subject matter and the common language of experience, The New Colony will cultivate the next generation of arts supporters. thenewcolony.org.

â€œPrologue is ecstatic to be a part of Garage Rep 2014, and we can’t wait to collaborate with Steppenwolf and the other visiting companiesâ€ comments Prologue Artistic Director Angela Alise. â€œWe consider it aÂ great honor to present the Chicago premiere of Katori Hall’s playÂ SaturdayÂ Night/SundayÂ Morning. The humor and language of this play will grab you from the very start. This show will be unlike anything you have seen in the Garage in the past, and we can’t wait to see howÂ SaturdayÂ Night/SundayÂ Morning touches audiences.â€

Memphis, 1945: Miss Maryâ€™s beauty parlor and boarding house is alive and hoppingâ€”full of young African American women primping their hair and telling stories of their soldiers overseas. But as the final days of WWII approach, the women wrestle with the uncertainty of what the future will hold whenâ€”and ifâ€”their men return. Hilarious and historical, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning is a story about finding friendship and love in unexpected places.

Prologue Theatre Company (Angela Alise, Artistic Director; Amanda Renee King, Managing Director) was incorporated in 2008, and is currently in its fifth season of producing untold historical stories from underrepresented voices. Prologue was founded in response to what we saw as an intense segregation within Chicagoâ€™s theatrical community, and a desire to help build a more diverse and complete understanding of Americaâ€™s historical and dramatic canon. We produce new and forgotten works, focusing on the experiences of women, people of color and LGBTQ populations that have relevance to current issues.

â€œWalkabout was drawn to the Garage Rep and Steppenwolf through our shared beliefs in ensemble, innovation and citizenship,â€ notes Walkabout Artistic Director Kendra Miller. â€œWe’re excited to bring our rigorous training practice and laboratory theater devising process to the Garage as part of an on-going conversation with Chicago about the potential of live performance and how it challenges us to surpass our expectations of ourselves.â€

Rhythmic, muscular and full of risk, The Wild is the world premiere of a devised laboratory theater performance based on the words of playwright Charles Mee, Dionysian rituals and a pulsing mix of global folk performance. Walkabout Theatre Company examines what happens to people when institutions crumble and deities fail to show up.

Since 1999, Walkabout Theater CompanyÂ (Kendra Miller, Artistic Director; Thom Pasculli, Associate Artistic Director; Lauren Sivak, Managing Director) has performed and produced new site-specific and experimental work in Chicago, challenging traditional theatrical models of production, performance, narrative and story. Through active exploration of the theatrical form and the architecture in which theater is created, Walkabout seeks to deepen the connection between the artist and the Chicago community.Â walkabouttheater.org.

The 2014 line-up also features Late Night @ Garage Rep, a series of late-night, cross-genre performances, every Thursday night at 11pm starting March 6. The After Party includes performances by Salonathon (March 6); the play with music, Duo: 1 Is 1, 2 Is Math (March 13); Kevin Coval and Young Chicago Authors (March 20); James Anthony Zoccoliâ€™s Wiggerlover [whiteboy+blackdad=greyareas] (March 27); Ian Belknapâ€™s one-man Bring Me The Head Of James Franco, That I May Prepare a Savory Goulash In The NarrowAnd Misshapen Pot Of His Skull (April 3); The Gift Theatreâ€™s improv group, Natural Gas (April 10); and Chicago Dance Crashâ€™s Follow The Reader (April 17). Full schedule on the following page.

Single tickets ($20) and three-play passes ($45) to Garage Rep 2014 are currently on sale through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650 and steppenwolf.org. Student Discounts: a limited number of $15 student tickets are available online using promo code â€œGARAGEREP15â€. Limit 2 tickets per student; must present a valid student ID for each ticket. For additional student discounts, visit steppenwolf.org/students. Group Tickets: all groups of 10 or more receive a discounted rate for any performance throughout the season. For additional information, visit steppenwolf.org/groups.

Since the inaugural repertory in 2010, Garage Rep has brought the work of 12 storefront theater companies in Chicago to the Steppenwolf stage, including: The Twins Would Like To Say by Dog & Pony Theatre Company, punkplay by Pavement Group and Adore by XIII Pocket in 2010; Heddatron by Sideshow Theatre Company, The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen by The Strange Tree Group and Sonnets for an Old Century by UrbanTheater Company in 2011; Hit the Wall by The Inconvenience, Oohrah! by LiveWire Chicago and He Who by Theatre Zarko in 2012; and See What I Wanna See by Bailiwick Chicago, She Kills Monsters by Buzz22 Chicago and BlackTop Sky by Theatre Seven of Chicago in 2013. Garage Rep 2014 marks the fifth annual series, adding The New Colony, Prologue Theatre Company and Walkabout Theater Company to the distinguished list of Garage Rep participants.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is Americaâ€™s longest standing, most distinguished ensemble theater, producing nearly 700 performances and events annually in its three Chicago theater spacesâ€”the 515-seat Downstairs Theatre, the 299-seat Upstairs Theatre and the 80-seat Garage Theatre. Formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, Steppenwolf has grown into an ensemble of 43 actors, writers and directors. Artistic programming at Steppenwolf includes a five-play Subscription Season, a two-play Steppenwolf for Young Adults season and two repertory series: First Look Repertory of New Work and Garage Rep. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, nearly 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success both nationally and internationally, including Off-Broadway, Broadway, London, Sydney and Dublin. Steppenwolf has the distinction of being the only theater to receive the National Medal of Arts, in addition to numerous other prestigious honors including an Illinois Arts Legend Award and 12 Tony Awards. Martha Lavey is the Artistic Director and David Hawkanson is the Executive Director. Nora Daley is Chair of Steppenwolfâ€™s Board of Trustees.

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